While visiting a couple of friends recently in Texahoma, we all decided it would be a good idea to do a little Striper fishing. This striped bass is known as an anadromous fish meaning it lives its life in saltwater and will spawn in freshwater. This fish is capable of living its whole life in freshwater and is stocked throughout the central states. A striper looks similar to a white bass, but is slimmer in size with dark stripes. This species is a real popular game fish amongst anglers. There are also the fish known as wipers which is a hybrid. It is a cross between the white bass and the saltwater striped bass fish. State hatcheries produce these fish, which live quite well alongside the crappie, catfish, and walleyed. The wipers prefer open water area lakes and will feed on shad or other baitfish.

We got an early morning start, because this is one of the best times to get out there, and catch these open water predator fish. Early evening is the alternative time to do this type of fishing. At first we were going to fish off the bank but we decided to get my friends boat and go trolling. As we were trolling for a while, we were looking for some migrating schools of shad or baitfish which these Stripers love. Normally, wherever there are shad, stripper will be nearby. It didn’t take long before we found our spot. There in the midst of all the shad, you could see the surface of the water with plenty of movement from the Striper feeding. We were trolling through and the fish started biting our lines. The first line hit was my moms. She was working it. She definitely had a fight on her hands but she knows how to handle the situation like a pro. These fish are known for their fight and will give you a run for your money and mom won. She brought in a nice 9 lb wiper, which is not bad for the first fish of the day.

While mom was fighting for her prized catch I was in the middle of my own battle. I could tell I had a nice size fish on my line. I brought in a 5lb 7oz striper which wasn’t as big as my moms, but I enjoyed it just the same. We continued our fishing a couple of more hours, caught our limit and release the others. My friends and I did pretty well but mom beat us all with her largest fish of the day, which was over 14 lbs. Since she worked the hardest and caught the biggest fish she said I was elected to cooking duties. Mom called it down, so I cleaned and cut up the fish and grilled it, and topped it with a mango salsa. My sides were grilled baked potato and corn on the cob. We all had great day fishing with family and friends.